My two bits on Iggy and the blues

Thinking about punk as a blues bromide. This after e-chat with Don Fluckinger, who recently visited Chicago, and Record Mart and met Bob Koestler, with whom he discussed the Igg in Chicago.

My two bits: Iggy Pop Stooge started as a drummer. Claims actually to have played with Motown bands in Detroit area. He went on the road to do blues, as a drummer, I believe, before the Stooges. Got as far as Chicago.

Iggy played and travelled with a guy named Johnny Young, who was a rarity: an electric blues mandolin player. Johnny Young means a lot to me because he was the first actual blues player I ever saw.

Johnny Young came up from Chicago to my hometown of Racine Wisconsin a couple of times, playing with Lee Jackson (gtr., who hoboed with Robert Johnson), S.P Leary (drums., who played with Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters) and others, but those others didnt include Iggy. First impressions are lasting impressions.

Like the Kinks and Zep Ledlin, the Stooges recreated the blues so ineptly that they created whole new forms of music. I say the Kinks cause they started out in the living room trying to do Big Bill Bronzy. A frayed speaker black paper cone helped define the new sound. I mention the Zeps, but their main contribution was to up the Yardbirds another 11, and dose with reds and Romilar. Iggy in his own words took the whole history of Western Music and condensed it down to three chords that anyone could play. - Jack Vaughan